Courtesy BarnArts Center for the Arts
BarnArts scatters Haunted Village Theater around five outdoor locations in Barnard this weekend. It will start family-friendly and become more eerie as the night approaches with tours beginning at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday at Barnard Town Hall. Tickets range from $10-20 and can be purchased at barnarts.org.
Saturday and Sunday Oct. 21-22—BARNARD—A team of 20+ local creatives are putting their finishing touches on a unique set of chilling scenes for BarnArts 2nd Haunted Village Theater, staged this weekend around fire pits throughout the village of Barnard. Fourteen Performances take place Oct. 21 and 22, and tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students, and $10 for 12 and under. There will also be a fall comfort food dinner at the Barnard Town Hall.
The first two tours each night will be family-friendly though the tone will darken from G-rated to PG13 along with the skies. Tickets and more info can be found at barnarts.org, including an add-on costumed tour guides will lead groups on walking tours of five locations around the village of Barnard starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday. A large, all ages cast welcomes attendees and sets the festive mood at the first stop amid tall grasses in the old orchard behind the Barnard Town Hall. Directed by Kaetlyn Collins, the cast includes Collins as well as Doug Abbot, Anita Hamalainen, Nat Holland, Beth Damon, Marlena Farinas, Sara Norcross, Isa Snyder-Hamalainen, Kai Snyder-Hamalainen, Leo Snyder-Hamalainen, and Sally Zwain. They will be performing a beloved song from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Next, the tour will go lakeside for a haunting performance of “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Kory Hirak on the edge of Silver Lake. Tapley Trudell will present a new take on the 18th century Barnard tale “The Mad Wolf,” supported by a series of haunting sound effects, in the Dorothy Thompson Memorial Common behind the Barnard General Store. Further along in the common, Killian White and Vander Gac will stage the eerie short story of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” beside the old Sinclair Lewis writing cabin.
The tour will wrap up outside the First Universalist Church with an original Puritan scene, “The Trial of Beth Wilde (again),” written by Elyse DeNeige and Olivia Piepmeie which uses comedy informed by history to remind all of the long record of intolerance in our country. Mary Urban joins them in the performance. Guides, Dan Deneen, Kevin Donohue, Eric Fritz, Laurie Marshall, Kerry Rosenthal, and Robin Simpson will share more stories mixed with interesting lore of the Barnard Village while leading the audience safely between sites.
All tours will start and end at the Barnard Town Hall, which serves as the home base for the event as well as a rain location in case of bad weather, as well as a site for rest and ADA bathrooms. Also available at the Barnard Town Hall will be a fall comfort food dinner. The menu includes warm stew and soups (vegetarian & meat-based options), macaroni & cheese (with a gluten-free option), grilled hot dogs, dessert, and warm herbal tea. Dinner tickets ($15 adults, $10 kids) can be purchased ahead with tour tickets or at the door.
All sites are a close walk from each other, but participants should be dressed for the outdoors and tromping across spots of uneven and damp ground. Chairs and blankets will be available for seating in some sites. For ADA accommodations please contact BarnArts.
While tour tickets will be good at any tour, a specific tour time is not guaranteed unless tickets are purchased ahead! Please consult the website and BarnArts social media pages for up to date weather information. More information and tickets can be found at barnarts.org (info@barnarts.org or 802-234-1645).
